Things are not going well for Warren Elmore. While on a mission to procure some choice organic eggs for his wife, Sunny, so she can make a perfect omelette to serve guests at the hotel they run, Warren is bitten by a werechicken.
It’s the last thing the innkeeper needs. He and his wife are already battling a dirty bank manager determined to force them to sell their hotel in the sleepy Vermont town of Hatchford, not to mention influencers who keep “forgetting” to pay for their rooms. Now Warren faces a game warden on a mission to kill every werechicken he finds, because “Werechickens are real … and they are frickin’ unpleasant.”
So goes the tagline of Hatchford Hotel, a musical comedy written by Adam Rabin and Greg Skillman and produced by the Shelburne Players, which runs from October 2 to 10 at the Shelburne Town Center. It’s the show’s first proper run with a full cast since it was workshopped at Vermont Comedy Club in Burlington.
“It started as a lockdown project for Greg and me,” Rabin said. He and Skillman have been friends and musical partners for more than 30 years, playing together in bands such as Burlington prog-rock outfit Elephants of Scotland. Stuck in their homes with no gigs to play, the two began writing and indulging their funnier sides.
“We took one of these crazy ideas we’d been talking about and actually ran with it,” Rabin said.
Together, Rabin and Skillman crafted the story of a beleaguered couple from Burlington who move to a fictional Vermont town in the sticks to open a bed-and-breakfast. Supernatural hijinks ensue when Hatchford turns out to be a hub for werechickens — humans who morph into chickens and tend to create chaos wherever they go. To accompany the story, Rabin wrote a collection of stage-ready songs such as “Tree Fellin’ Gal” and “Here, Right Here.” Quirky and comedic, they dive into the characters’ lives and motivations.
The duo staged the first version of the play at Vermont Comedy Club in 2022 to a sold-out room and a standing ovation. In 2024, it had a radio play-style production at the Off Center for the Dramatic Arts in Burlington.
We took one of these crazy ideas and actually ran with it.
Adam Rabin
After that, “we decided to do it for real,” Rabin said. He and Skillman shopped the play around until the Shelburne Players, um, “pecked” it up. Jonah Hagans directs the production, which stars Isaac Besso and Kitana Hudgens as the Elmores; Rabin is the musical director and oversees a score that has evolved with each production.
Having directors, producers, and a full cast and crew work on their play gave Rabin and Skillman a jolt of inspiration. They rewrote whole sections, changed lyrics and collaborated with the actors — an eye-opening experience for Rabin.
“There’s this marvelous kind of feedback when you work with actors,” he said. “We write something; the actor performs it and brings something extra we didn’t see at first. And then we want more of what they just did! We can tell the actors want more to chew on.”
Little by little, he and Skillman simplified the plot to make it better suited for the stage than a comedy workshop. Some of the cornier jokes were cut — though not all.
During a recent rehearsal at Trinity Episcopal Church in Shelburne, plenty of poultry puns flew around as cast members — some half in costume with chicken masks — ran through the production, squawking and breaking into laughter in equal measure.
Rabin watched from behind an open laptop with a look of concentration that occasionally gave way to outright glee.
He said later: “This is the most fun I’ve ever had on a creative project.” ➆
The original print version of this article was headlined “Fowl Play | A new musical comedy by two Vermont rockers bawks at the moon as a plague of werechickens afflicts a rural hotel”
This article appears in Performing Arts Preview • 2026.
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